posted May 24, 2002 01:13 AM
OK, this may sound pretty strange but let me know what any of you think anyway. A few years ago you never heard of a dirt track go-cart running anything but treaded tires. Then some drivers started running slicks on very hard or dry slick tracks. The theory is that on a dry slick track you want as few grooves as possible and as big a contact patch as possible. You can't getter any less grooves than a slick. Those drivers got made fun of for a very short while until they started winning. Now it is rare to find a treaded tire on a go cart on any kind of surface. So, here is the theory. If it works for go-carts, why not for late models? Granted there is a lot more weight but the theory should be the same. More grooves on tacky tracks, less on dry slick. I don't know if I want to shell out 500.00 in pavement tires to find out but I think the idea may have merit, maybe at least on very dry or "blue groove" tracks. Have any of you ever seen a car run a slick on a dirt track? let me know. TC

birdcageDirt Full Roller Total posts: 57

posted May 24, 2002 03:50 AM
Yes if you working in the surface (tacky) you want wide grooves to dig in the surface. but on dry hard packed you work on the surface. the problem is will out grooves the tire can't release the heat and will usually blister. the gocarts may have to run a compound that is to hard and wont blister cause it can't get hot enuff. generally you run a wide groove that self cleans easier on a tacky or soft race track but small gooves on a hard slick tarck. this leaves more rubber in contact with the ground but still aids in building temp and releasing temp. this is a very small part of tires. it actually gets very complicated in a hurry. hope that helps a little bit

FS07BDirt Newbie Total posts: 1

posted May 24, 2002 04:09 PM
Sounds like an interesting idea, our series has a spec tire that has a D-55 compound which is very hard. I wonder if a slick with the same compound would work as it probably won't build up the same amount of heat as a softer tire would. Might be worth a try.

fridgeDirt Full Roller Total posts: 71

posted May 24, 2002 10:38 PM
i used to race go karts and we racn slick tires, but the tires were VERY soft slicks, and the go karts didn't have much horsepower and with treaded tires they would bog the motors down a little, unless you can find some extremely soft slick tire, i would probably stick to a regular dirt tire, i think the horsepower will be the difference, it will spin the tires to easy i think